Device for descaling and cleaning wire rod



Jan. 19, 1960 E. c. PLANETT DEVICE FOR DESCALING AND CLEANING WIRE ROD Original Filed April 27, 1954 INVENTOR. .5704 944N577 BY W W I Patented. Jan. 19, 1960.

2,921,365 I, l I I DEVICE FOR DESCALING CLEANING WIRE ROD Earl c. Planett, San Marino, Calif.

Original application April 27, 1954,Serial No. 425,983, now Patent No. 2,804,196, dated August 27, 1957. and this application April 30, 1957, Serial No.

1 Claim. (Cl. 29-81) This invention relates to the descaling and cleaning of hot rolled wire rod stock in preparation for making cold drawn wire and is a divisional application of my copending application, Serial No. 425,983, filed April 27, l954, and issued as US. Patent No. 2,804,196 on August 27, 1957.

In the manufacture of cold drawn wire from hot rolled wire rod, the stock material is drawn through a succession of dies to progressively reduce the diameter of the material to a desired dimension. Ordinarily, a reduction of about 30% is obtained through each pass. As the stock rod is fed to the first of the series of dies, it is usually passed through a chamber, commonly called the soap box, containing a mobile lubricant commonly called soap. The lubricant comprises a grease or fat base containing various agents compounded to meet varying requirements, and serves to lubricate the rod and hold down the relatively high temperature which is developed as the stock rod is drawn through the die.

It is important that the wire rod be freed of all scale, such as that ordinarily produced by acid pickling, before the rod is passed through the first die. Even a small particle of scale carried on the rod may lodge in the die and cause objectionable scoring of the rod, or the die, or both. To effectually remove the scale and clean the rod in preparation for the cold drawing operation, it has been a common practice to subject the stock to a pickling process. In that practice, the rod material is repeatedly submerged in acid and washed with water directed onto the rod at high pressure to remove scale, and finally submerged in lime or borax solution. Such treatment is costly and messy, slows production, and re-' 'sults have been discouraging because of a number of operational factors encountered in commercial practice, and especially because of the tendency of small particles of the scale to cling to the rod in spite of such treatments. Small particles. thus clinging to the rod are carried thereby into the soap box. There, many of the particles will be removed by the lubricant through which they become scattered. A few may be carried directly to the die where they may lodge and thereafter cause a continuing scoring of the wire and perhaps permanent damage to the die. The accumulation of scale particles in the lubricant increases the likelihood that one or more may lodge in the die.

It is among the objects of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for effectively descaling and cleaning hot rolled wire rod by mechanical means as the stock is fed to a wire drawing machine without need for preparatory pickling or similar chemical treatmeat.

that possibility may be ignored;

Another object is to provide-'a'device' for descaling and cleaning wire rod whereintheflrodis subjected to brushing to loosen the scale particles thereon and wherein the scale particles are then blown 01f of the rod by a jet of air.

The invention has other objects and features of advantage, some of which with the foregoing will be explained in connection with the embodiment of the invention selected for illustration in the drawings forming a part of the present specification. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiment illustrated, as it may be otherwise embodied within the definition of the appended claim.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a sectional view, with parts shown in elevation, of a scale removing unit constructed in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on line 22 of Fig. 1.

- In terms of broad inclusion, the rod descaling and cleaning device of this invention comprises mechanical means for loosening and displacing substantially all scale carried by wire rod as it is fed to a wire drawing machine, by passing the rod through a rotor provided with brushes and air jets for displacing the loosened scale.-

In terms of greater detail, the strand of wire rod 1 is passed through a scale removing station designated in general by the numeral 4. At this station, the strand is passed axially through an axial opening 611 in a rotor 6. The rotor 6 has radially extending impeller blades 5 secured thereto, and the rotor is journaled at the ends of the impeller blades 5, as at 6b and 6c, for rotation within a housing 7, suitably mounted upon or in association with the frame of a wire drawing machine. The ends of the rotor 6 have secured thereto the radially extending end plates 6d and 6e. As illustrated, the rotor 6 is driven as an air turbine by means of compressed air supplied from any available source through a supply pipe 10 arranged to direct a jet of air against impeller blades 5 secured to the rotor. Brushes 8 are mounted in carriers 9 radially disposed upon the end of the rotor 6 at which the strand 1 enters the rotor. The brushes 8 are urged along the carriers by springs 11 which press the brushes against the strand with sufficient pressure to displace scale from the surface of the strand as the rotor is rotated. The number of brushes 8 and the pressure applied by the springs 11 may, of course, be varied to suit varying requirements.

The end plate 6e of rotor 6 isprovided with jet tubes 12 mounted thereon and positioned in enclosed radial relation to the axis of the rotor. The tubes 12 are provided with jet orifices 13 positioned to direct jets of air against the surface of the strand 1 as they emerge from the rotor 6. The air jets issuing from the orifices 13 serve primarily to displace particles of scale which have escaped displacement by the brushes 8.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

Apparatus for descaling and cleaning'wire rod comprising a housing, a rotor journaled for rotation in said housing, said rotor having an axial passage therethrough for the passage of wire rod axially therethrough, a plurality of impeller blades secured to said rotor, means including an air supply pipe secured to said housing to direct a jet of air into said housing and against said impeller blades to rotate said rotor, a plurality of brushes radially disposed on and at one end of said rotor,

means to urge said brushes towards said axia1 nassage for brushing the surface of said wire rod passing therethrough, and a plurality of jet tubes mounted on said rotor and opening into the interior of said housing, said jet tubes each having a jet orifice positioned -toedirect a jet of air from s'aid'housing against said: wire rod as it passes axially from said rotor.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 293,011 Hall Feb. 5, 1884 v 4 Ferguson Mar. 8, 1904 Boiey Dec. 13, 1904' Cutter Nov. 19, 1918 Haase July 10, 1928 Logan Oct. 3, 1944 Kinney Apr. 10, 1951 Scott Sept. 18, 1951 Peignier Dec. 9, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain May 9, 1905 France Jan. 3, 1945 

